Escape from the Badlands. Dana Mentink

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      THREE

      Shane stood in the near darkness, watching the moonlight retreat and advance as clouds danced across the sky. He was cold and confused. Kelly could not be here. It was too much of a bizarre coincidence, and he did not believe in coincidences. She’d finished her nurses’ training; he was not surprised about that. Kelly would do what she set out to, even if circumstances conspired against her. He’d always admired that about her.

       The vibration of his satellite phone startled him. Heart hammering, he took it from its waterproof case and answered.

       “Hey,” his brother said, the jail phone connection crackling with static.

       “Hey yourself. You sound funny.” Shane tried to keep the worry out of his voice as he pictured his brother the last time he’d seen him—through the Plexiglas in the jail’s visitors’ room. The shock of seeing Todd in an orange jumpsuit still pained him.

       “Got a fat lip.”

       “How?”

       Todd sighed. “Couple guys found out I used to be a cop back in the day.”

       Shane’s blood ran cold. Once a cop, always a cop in the eyes of the inmates. Todd might as well have a target painted on his forehead in that South Dakota jail. He pressed the phone to his mouth. “Tell the warden. They’ve got to give you some protection.”

       “Trial’s coming up, then it will all be over.”

       Shane cupped the phone against the wind, wishing he could reach through the connection. “You’re not going to be convicted for something you didn’t do.”

       His brother hesitated. “Maybe I did it.”

       “Don’t say that. You didn’t kill Olivia. You loved your wife.”

       Todd sighed again, his voice flat and listless. “Things were tough between Olivia and me before then. We had a fight. I…I was drinking. I passed out, but maybe before that…”

       Shane forced out a calm breath. “You and I both know that it was someone else, one of the race producers you hosted last year, the night before she was murdered. The young one, Devin Ackerman, was fawning over Olivia, you told me.”

       “Yeah, and that set me off. Olivia said I was being a jealous fool.” He laughed. “She always told it like it was.”

       The tiny spark in Todd’s voice as he spoke gave Shane a moment of optimism. “I talked to a cop who used to work with you. He never bought Ackerman’s alibi—that girl Ellen Brown, who said Ackerman was with her the night of the murder. He told me he thinks she might have been lying. I’ve been looking for her. I’m going to talk to her, convince her to tell the truth. It might not get you out, but it will be enough to cast some reasonable doubt.”

       “Have you found her yet?”

       Shane wished desperately he had another answer. He’d spent a month trying to track her down, with no success. “Not yet, but they let me in the race. I’m here right now. Plenty of the participants are repeaters from last year. One of them is likely to know where she went, have an email address, something. If nothing else, maybe I can get into the past race files and find her.”

       “Maybe she’s telling the truth.”

       “Then why would she disappear? And how did Ackerman’s business card wind up on Olivia’s desk?”

       “It’s a long shot.”

       “It’s the only shot I can think of. All I’ve got to do is poke a hole in his alibi. The police will have to take a closer look at Ackerman. I’m sure…”

       Todd cut him off. “Police did their thing. They couldn’t disprove Ackerman’s alibi. No evidence pointing to anyone but me. Ranch hand heard us arguing. Gunshot residue on my fingers. Case closed.”

       He wanted to shout at his brother, shake some spirit back into him. “You’ve got to believe in your own innocence. I do. I’ve never stopped.”

       Shane pictured him now, green eyes so like Shane’s other brother, Lonnie, the little boy who had died before he even got to taste what life had to offer.

       “I did, too, at first, but I’m not so sure anymore. I blacked out, I was drunk and I have a temper. If I killed my wife, I deserve to be here,” Todd said softly.

       “Stop talking like that. You don’t deserve to be in prison for a murder you didn’t commit,” Shane hissed. “Someone killed your wife, and we both know who that was. All we’ve got to do is come up with evidence that casts a reasonable doubt that you did it, give your lawyer something to work with.”

       Todd spoke slowly and deliberately. “Listen to me, Shane. I want you to leave that race and not come back. You’ve had enough pain already. Walk away from this mess. Find Kelly and start over with her.”

       Shane felt his face flush. He spent every waking moment missing Kelly, the feel of her silken hair on his face, the smile that lit up the inside of his heart like a beacon. “I’m not walking away.” He swallowed hard. “You’re the only brother I’ve got now.”

       “There’s nothing left for me.”

       “Yes, there is. You always say God will…”

       “That’s what I used to think, that He answered prayers, interceded for people who loved Him,” Todd said.

       That’s what Todd had tried to teach Shane when Lonnie died, and then when things fell apart with Kelly. “Don’t give up your faith, Todd,” he said, fighting to keep his voice level. He felt like a hypocrite telling his brother to hold onto God when Shane could not do the same, but he did not want to see that part of his brother die. Todd’s faith might be the only thing that kept him alive until Shane could figure out how to free him.

       Todd spoke with a tone completely devoid of hope. “It doesn’t make sense to me anymore. I can’t make myself believe it now.”

       Fear coiled through Shane’s gut. What could he say to save his brother? “I will keep fighting until we find out who killed Olivia. We’ll hire another lawyer if we need to.”

       “No. Let it go and walk away, just as I said.” Todd sighed. “Goodbye, Shane,” he said as he hung up.

       Swallowing a surge of desperation, he walked to the edge of the canyon. The rain tapered off and the water had begun to recede, as if a drain had suddenly been uncapped. Water sucked away into the parched land around it and beyond, lowering visibly as he watched.

       Soon Kelly’s car was clear—still jammed against the rocks, but accessible. He retied a rope and eased himself down again. This time the driver’s-side door opened easily. Avoiding the bits of glass, he reached for the keys left in the ignition.

       He imagined how panicked she must have been, knowing that she could drown at any moment, along with Charlie.

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